Throwback Thursday: 1998 Chevrolet Camaro SS vs Ford Mustang Cobra Road Test

We’re taking it back 16 years (dang, has it really been that long?) to 1998 when GM refreshed the 4th. Gen F-body with a new look and revolutionary LS power! The new Camaro was a force to be reckoned with and was easily the meanest muscle car in the streets, but it had to push through FoMoCo’s naturally aspirated SN95 Cobra with its 305hp naturally aspirated 32-valve V8 to do so.

So how did Chevy claw its way to the top? With pure might! In this case, MotorWeek hosted a head-to-head battle between the two that took the pair around a race track, on the street and heads-up in straight line acceleration tests. How’d the Camaro do? Well its lack of traction cost it the 0-60 sprint by just three tenths, a 5.7 second sprint to the Mustang’s 5.4. At the end of the quarter mile the Camaro closed the gap to just one-tenth of a second and was two miles per hour faster than the Mustang with times of 13.7 @ 104 mph for the Cobra to the Camaro’s 13.8 @ 106 mph. We’d say, with a better driver the more powerful Camaro would’ve won, but hey, it still had a faster trap speed and MW admitted it had significantly more punch than the smaller, but rev-happy Mustang.

Around a racetrack the Camaro was also two seconds faster, but at the sacrifice of a stiffer ride. Meh, so what, it ain’t a Caddy! The Camaro also had a sticker of just $24,495–dang, that’s cheap! As for the winner, well, you’re going to have to watch and find out! Enjoy the trip back in time to the heyday of the 4th. Gen F-body!